Subaru’s STI is really starting to test my goddamn patience. Like any toxic on-again-off-again relationship, I’ve been let down by the lies and the promises to come back into my life over and over. Many times, I’ve all but given up hope STI would enter my world — just to be sucked back into its orbit the second there’s a glimmer of hope. Well, that cycle is definitely going to continue, because an Australian executive at the company just said Subaru Tecnica International is most certainly “not dead.” STI, I just can’t quit you.
Speaking with Australia’s Drive magazine, the general manager for Subaru’s Australian arm, Scott Lawrence, alluded to the idea that a new model was in the works and made it very clear that the performance brand isn’t going anywhere. I’ve seen this trap before, and I’m falling for it nevertheless. Apparently Subie has been saying close attention to reactions people have been giving to STI-branded concepts that have debuted in the past few months, like the all-electric Performance-E STI and far-more production-ready (but still probably not happening) Performance-B STI — both of which we got an up-close look at at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show.
“The tempo of news and activity out of STI publicly is picking up. It has the most vocal followers of the Subaru camp, put it that way,” Lawrence told Drive. “As those concepts proved, lots of work in that space – STI isn’t dead.”
The automaker already recently revealed the WRX STI Sport#, which we said gave us “World Rally Blue Balls” due to the fact it may have looked the part of a true STI (minus the wing), but it didn’t actually have any real performance upgrades.
An electric STI
There’s some speculation that an electric STI is a bit more of a possibility than a gas-powered one. Sure, the Performance-B looked far more road ready than the Performance-E when I saw it in Tokyo, but Subaru has already confirmed that the B is very much just a concept car. (This is where you loudly boo and call Subaru execs cowards).
However, it hasn’t made a single comment about the future of prospects of the Performance-E. That being said, any electric STI seems to be a long ways away, the Performance-E looked to be very early in the concept car phases, and I’m not even 100% sure it had an interior. We really don’t know much about it at all. When it debuted, all Subaru said was it was “spacious” and “driver-friendly.” All we know is that it’s the correct color blue, is a wagon, has gold wheels and comes with all-wheel-drive. That means it has at least two electric motors, but it could have up to three or four, depending on how silly Subaru is feeling. All Subaru would say is that it has “various innovative technologies.”
There’s certainly performance to be had in the EV STI space. I mean, the Solterra EV will do 0-60 in 4.3 seconds, according to Car and Driver, so Subaru can clearly make a quick EV. Surly with the knowhow of STI at the helm, something wonderful can be created. I suppose we shall see.
